CNN: US and Russia have moved from the Cold War to an unpredictable conflict

“This is a conflict, there should be no doubt about it,” said Matthew Rojansky, director of the Kennan Institute at the Wilson Center.

On Tuesday, White House spokesman Josh Ernest said the United States is considering a “range” of “proportional” responses to the Russian hacking of servers of American political parties. Washington has publicly blamed the Kremlin for cyber attacks on the electoral system and on democracy itself last Friday. This happened after the failure of the cease-fire negotiations in Syria. After that, officials in the United States offered to initiate an investigation against Russia for the commission of war crimes in the besieged city of Aleppo.

Meanwhile, Moscow stubbornly denies interfering in the US presidential election. In an interview with CNN this week, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that this is an unfounded accusation.

“We have not seen a single fact, not a single proof,” said Lavrov, answering a question about accusations of Russia's involvement in hacker attacks on American servers.

“For a regional power, as President Obama recently called Russia, it’s certainly flattering to hear such compliments,” the minister added.

US Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton pointed to hackers as evidence that Russia is supporting her opponent, Donald Trump. Appearing at an investment forum on Wednesday in Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin has denied this charge.

At the same time, Moscow suddenly withdrew from the nuclear security treaty, citing US aggression, and moved Iskanders capable of carrying nuclear weapons to the edge of NATO territory in Europe. Russian officials have openly declared the possibility of using nuclear weapons.

Friction between Moscow and Washington, according to many estimates, is now the worst after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

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